Turning Ways
by Angelina Roongta
Summary: What happens when Mrs. Everdeen the unsuspecting mother of mediator Katniss remarries someone from her past, that someone being a blond haired and blue eyed baker with two sons- Rye and Wheat Mellark? Add to the mix that Kat sees the ghost of Percy Jackson in her bedroom who thinks or rather knows that she is the reincarnation of Annabeth, daughter of Athena.
1. Chapter 1

I put on the blue dress that all bride maids have to wear and braid my hair, ignoring the flats my mother had kept for me, instead wearing my hunting boots. I walk around the house once more, taking everything in for the last time. The broken mirrior, the rickety table, the sink, everything. This will be my last day in this house, in the Seam. I pick up few of my most prized possesions and hold them close- my dad's plant book and his hunting jacket. How could she do this? I ask myself over and over again. I get it that Dad is gone and unlike me she can not see him and that I was the one who yelled at her for not coming out of her depressiong earlier but marrying the baker? That no one told her to do. Mrs. Mellark had died a few weeks ago and was popularly known as the district witch but still.

" Your mother is taking the right decision, you know." Dad said

I turned around to face him and buried my face in his shoulder. He wore a grey shirt and brown pants, for the first time since he died, I had seen him out of hhis mining clothes. My Dad died in a mining accident eleven years back but somehow I can still see him. He then explained to me that he is now a ghost and something his holding him from going to where ever the dead go, and that being a mediator I can see him but no one else can.

"Katniss, are you done?" myy little sister Prim asks

" Yes little duck" I say as I wave dad goodbye.

I refused to look at the baker or my mother the entire ceremony. I could see the ghosts of my grandprarents smilling and laughing. As soon as the marriage was sealed I ran away to the woods. I could not care less that I will miss the reception but I could not stand another second with Rye and Wheat my new brothers. The woods were my safe santuary but they were also filled with ghosts. Most of them had been meditated away by me and the rest never bothered me. I sighed as I saw the ghoost of the boy who had been killed by the Capitol ran past me. At least there were less ghosts here than in the district. I turned at the slight crunching of leaves exepecting another ghost but all I saw was a fat rabbit and my arrow soon made way through it's eye. I figured it would be dark soon and left.

I almost reached my house when I remembered that the bakery iis now my house. I traded the few animals I had in the hob and saved a squirrel for Mr Mell- I mean Dad and went to my new home.

On my way I saw a nine year old girl crying under a tree. Onlly the pale blue aura around her, showed that she was a ghost but other than that she was just a nobody. I wanted badly to walk past but she reminded me so strongly of Prim that I just had to walk up to her and sit down next to her.

"Hi" I said softly

At first she looked around to see if there was somone else I was talking to but then stammered " Y- You ca-can see me?"

"Yep and now let uus talk real fast. Hoe did you die sweetheart?" I know it seems cruel but I had to go in for the straight punch.

"Starvation" came the reply

"Oh"

"Why am I still here? Why can I not go and be with Tim and Mom and Dad?"

"Because you have some unfinished bussinness"

"Oh? Do you think it can be the borrowed pencil I never returned?"

That shocked me, a child still in this hell of a world because she did not return a pencil?

"Maybe"

"Please return it to Thom Underwood"

"OK" and then I went with her to her house, retrived the pencil and went to the Seam and gave it to Ria, Thom's sister saying it was his and I had taken it from the little girl he had given it to. The little girl who had been standing next to me all this while just puffed and disappeared and I felt happy for her.

I walked home and entered through the back door. I smiled at everyone and Mom showed me my room, Prim had her own and Rye and Wheat had their own rooms adjacent to each other and my Mom took the bakers room.

I entered my room and there on the window sill I saw a guy with sea green eyes and raven hair sitting on the window sill. He had a pale blue aura around him as if he had been born from the sea itself.

I scroweld at him and closed my room door to talk with him once and for all.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I walked up to the boy sitting on the window sill and said "What are you doing in my room?"

At first he looked around like most ghosts do when I or Gale, my best friend and another mediator talk to them but soon realizes that I am talking to him.

"Hey" he says, his voice sounds rich like waves on the ocean.

I do not wait for greetings and just get to the point on hand at once.

"You have to leave now." I hissed.

"This has been my house for the last thousand years."

"No, you are dead, you belong where ever the dead go and this is my room now, so kindly get lost before I kick your sorry bottom out of here." I replied in a equally firm voice.

There was a weird sparkle in his green eyes and a smile formed on his lips as he whispered "Annabeth is that you?"

I looked around to see who was he talking to but found no one other than me.

"My name's not Annabeth it is Katniss, and now get lost."

The smile had not left his lips but he seemed a little thoughtful and then said in a soft compelling voice "Please, can we work out a deal?"

I suddenly felt sorry for this guy who had been here since last thousand years alone. Suddenly something clicked, thousand years was before doomsday.

"You mean you the doomsday and rise of Panem, dark days and stuff?"

"Yes"

"Oh, and yes there can be a deal if you want, we can work out certain hours or something, but the bathroom's off limits for you and you have to give me some kind of a signal before coming."

" Deal" he said before disappearing.

I went to the bathroom to change, locking the door, tough it won't be much help if Ghost Boy decided to pop in but I would kill him, if he did that. Oh yeah, he's already dead, I will send him to hell.

While I changed, I wondered where my Dad was, is he not supposed to protect me from this kind of stuff, not that I need protection but still, Dads are supposed to get angry when guys start poping in their daughter's bedrooms but mine seems to have not a singal care in the world.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In the months I have been here I have accepted that I will never go back to the Seam or starve, I try to help Gale but he is too proud so I end up helping others in Seam. I cannot help much but still. I am a horrible cook and have gotten the duty to hunt which is good for me.

I have also made friends with Peeta Peruses Jackson and he told me that he had added his first name since the witch had died. He also ends up calling me Wise Girl or Annabeth at times which annoys me but after hearing his story I fear his sanity. I will tell those later sometime but for now we are on a compromise that I will call him Seaweed brain ( which totally suits him) and he will call me wise girl.

My mood today is very damp, tomorrow is reaping day. I don't need to take any tresea anymore but this is Prim's first reaping. I am very scared for tomorrow because of this uneasy feeling in my gut which says something bad is going to happen. My dad, and Peeta or Percy whatever you want to call him are also grim. Huh, I did not know him for long but he is scared for me and my family. I am anxious for my new family as well, because in the last few months I have got exceptionally attached to them especially Rye. Thank God Wheat is out of reaping and this is Rye's last year. And then there is Madge. Of course I also worry for Gale and Rory, they are like my family as well and thus overall I am miserable.

A/N SORRY THIS IS SHORT. This chapter is dedicated to Hunted Girl and Cato and Hunger games girls. Please review because the sooner I get ten reviews the sooner I will update and I do not mind critisim or people saying my story is bad, so go forward and say your thoughts. Peace be with you- Anji.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I stood at the reaping line for sixteen year olds and two figures appeared next to me- Peeta Peruses Jackson and Dad, both who were ghosts.

They smiled at me and tried to reassure me. Then Effie Trinket came and Peeta or Percy's expression turned sad. It was then that I wondered if I found tolerating the games for just a short life unfair, what about him? Of course, he was never going to go in and unlike the rest of us he could go poof and escape the games but still.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I did not see the hideous Capitol pig, as I liked to call her, pull out the slip containing the doomed girl's name. I almost missed the call but the name caught me off guard. It was Primrose Everdeen.

I looked and found myself staring into dad's eyes and in that instant I knew what I must do. The words came calmly out of my throat if is I was volunteering for a game and not a life match. Just two words, the two words which kept prim alive that day

"I volunteer."

The goodbyes were extremely painful but I held my pain in, my whole family came to visit me and Rye even gave me a compliment which was something he had never done before, just a simple one " Give them hell sis, I know you can."

I thought Dad and Percy were going to stay in twelve but here they were on the chariot with me. Percy had disappeared when gale came in to say goodbye but not before dropping a small book on him. I personally found it funny and his look when Cinna came in priceless.

My district partner Tertian was a bulky guy but he did not listen to Cinna and Portia and threw his cape in the crowd, which went wilder, if it was even possible.

"It is not like I have anything but that community home to go back to, no family, no friends nothing. Make sure you win Everdeen." He said before we slipped into our bedrooms for the night.

The training went fine until the third day when I shot an arrow at the game makers during my private session, Percy Peeta looked proud but Dad looked worried, I tried to shut them out but ended up crying wedged between them.

" Hey wise girl, do not cry." Percy said

Dad had been the one to convince me to get him along, saying they would be help and with Percy's supernatural water powers I would be mentoring this time next year. Oh yeah, Percy is the son Of Poseidon, the Greek God of Sea and thinks I am a daughter of Wisdom Athena, now my history is better than ever before, I used to get straight As in school, now they are going to ask me to tutor them.

I was bought back to present when I saw myself get an eleven, that night we supernatural beings had a party and a game plan, turns out Haymitch is a mediator as well.

Tertian wants me to win, because he had a sister who died in the games and he wants to join her, and he said she had always respected me.

I hope I can honor him and his sister as well.


	5. Chapter 5

I stood at the reaping line for sixteen year olds and two figures appeared next to me- Peeta Peruses Jackson and Dad, both who were ghosts.

They smiled at me and tried to reassure me. Then Effie Trinket came and Peeta or Percy's expression turned sad. It was then that I wondered if I found tolerating the games for just a short life unfair, what about him? Of course, he was never going to go in and unlike the rest of us he could go poof and escape the games but still.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I did not see the hideous Capitol pig, as I liked to call her, pull out the slip containing the doomed girl's name. I almost missed the call but the name caught me off guard. It was Primrose Everdeen.

I looked and found myself staring into dad's eyes and in that instant I knew what I must do. The words came calmly out of my throat if is I was volunteering for a game and not a life match. Just two words, the two words which kept prim alive that day

"I volunteer."

The goodbyes were extremely painful but I held my pain in, my whole family came to visit me and Rye even gave me a compliment which was something he had never done before, just a simple one " Give them hell sis, I know you can."

I thought Dad and Percy were going to stay in twelve but here they were on the chariot with me. Percy had disappeared when gale came in to say goodbye but not before dropping a small book on him. I personally found it funny and his look when Cinna came in priceless.

My district partner Tertian was a bulky guy but he did not listen to Cinna and Portia and threw his cape in the crowd, which went wilder, if it was even possible.

"It is not like I have anything but that community home to go back to, no family, no friends nothing. Make sure you win Everdeen." He said before we slipped into our bedrooms for the night.

The training went fine until the third day when I shot an arrow at the game makers during my private session, Percy Peeta looked proud but Dad looked worried, I tried to shut them out but ended up crying wedged between them.

" Hey wise girl, do not cry." Percy said

Dad had been the one to convince me to get him along, saying they would be help and with Percy's supernatural water powers I would be mentoring this time next year. Oh yeah, Percy is the son Of Poseidon, the Greek God of Sea and thinks I am a daughter of Wisdom Athena, now my history is better than ever before, I used to get straight As in school, now they are going to ask me to tutor them.

I was bought back to present when I saw myself get an eleven, that night we supernatural beings had a party and a game plan, turns out Haymitch is a mediator as well.

Tertian wants me to win, because he had a sister who died in the games and he wants to join her, and he said she had always respected me.

I hope I can honor him and his sister as well.

Chapter 5

Today Haymitch is going to coach and Tertian fort the interviews. We had been coached together till now but today we wanted it to be separate so that Haymitch could work better.

"So Katniss you have four hours with Effie and then four hours with me."

The four hours with Effie were in two words pure torture, and it did not help that Peeta Percy kept making me laugh when ever I got too tired, that guy seriously cares about me and even I have begun liking him as a friend. However, he has a weird past.

He told me that he was the son of the Greek Sea God Poseidon and he loved Annabeth and knows I am her reincarnation, I kicked him then but heard the rest of his story, all his quests, which were as dangerous as the games and then his last and Annabeth's last quest together to Tartarus where she sacrificed herself. How he died and never got to go to the underworld because Charon, the manager of the dead was angry with him for not getting him a pay rise and hoe he used his powers to save the dead and most of Panem during doomsday and how he tried to go to the underworld many times, because he knew Annabeth's soul had been freed itself from Tartarus and was in Elysium but before he could she chose to be reborn and Athena, Artemies and Apollo blessed her with powers and mediator gifts and thus he knew that I was Annabeth because I was the first mediator since before he died. He had also added Peeta to his name and that he loved me a bit, he heard me sing when I was five and that we are nearly the same age because he died when he was seventeen. He also believes Haymitch is the son of Bacchus, the wine dude, as he calls him, which made me laugh and Haymitch glare thoughtfully, because he had or his twin younger brother never truly known their dad.

I thought all this after I had left after kind of insulting Effie by pulling up my skirt too my knees and throwing away the five inch torture devices. I hated flats, loved shoes and liked heeled shoes but despised heeled flats.

The time with Haymitch was no better, he called me a dead slug but then Peeta and dad who had been quiet till then interrupted, took charge and helped by telling me to apply my writer's skills. Yes, I did write stories and lo I was perfectly ready for the interview. Even I had to admit Peeta Percy bought out the skills in me.

Now I am standing near the stage flanked by Peeta Percy and Dad. I am nervous as I try and pay attention. I totally love Rue's angle like outfit and interview. I saw Thresh going and lost track of time, he made the interview sound like a criminal of war interrogation, which I bet got him a sea full of sponsors.

"And now we call on stage that you know as the Girl on Fire but we call her Miss Katniss Everdeen." Ceaser says as I walk on to the stage with my invisible guards.

Ceaser says something that I cannot hear due to my nervousness and I foolishly ask him "What?"

I feel Peeta Percy and dad squeeze my hands and sigh as Ceaser and the crowd laughs as he states something about nervousness.

Percy's grip tightens and he rubs circle on my palm and the writer in me overcomes this stupid Hunger Games fright I have.

" Not nervous Ceaser" I say as he is about to open his mouth "dazzled because the Capitol is so different from where I come from." I say the last bit with a big smile to hide my scarsam.

"Well how is it different?"

"Well, to state that would take more than the allotted time but the showers here are weird. I hope I am never again showered with rose petals" I say adding the joke me and Percy had come up with.

"Oh, so we have different showers flocks. Are they your favorite thing here?"

"Oh no, nothing can beat the delicious food, especially the lamb stew and hot chocolate, they are heavenly."

"The one with dried plums, I can eat those by bucketfuls and they don't even show." He jokes along. That is what I like about him, the way he tries to help everyone.

"So now how did you feel when you came out on that chariot, I must say my heart stopped."

"So did mine, after I got over my fear of being turned into a human fry. But Cinna did a marvelous job." I say looking for him in the audience and see him making a twirling motion.

"And you must see the flames I am wearing today, you don't know half of what this dress does." As I begin to twirl and dance without waiting for a response.

"Wow steady."

"Now about that score an E-L-E-V-E-N-, are we not dying to get the details of how she got it."

One look at the Game makers, including the one who feel in the punch bowl I said "Secrets are there for a reason Cease, and though my lips are sealed, I can you it was a first and hopefully the last, I won't want someone breaking my record."

"Well, now I have one last question for you Fire Girl. I must say we were quite touched when you volunteered for your sister. Didn't want her to steal all the glory now we? Did she come to meet you?"

When I answered, my voice seemed to have dropped an octave, but it rang true and loud, I think that was because everyone was still recovering from the shock of a fire dress or maybe I was loud because of the ghosts holding my hands.

"Yes"

"And what did you both say?"

"She asked me to promise her that I will win, and win I will because warriors do not lose hope or fall and Katniss Everdeen does not break her promises."

"I am sure you will do everything in your power to win." He was flabbergasted but covered it.

"Anything else you would like to add?"

"Oh yes, this is to you Gale, Madge, Rye and Wheat I love eating bread for lunch under trees."

"Your dad, he died in the mines?"

"Yes, but he is the best person in my life."

"Is?"

"I will never use "was" for him, because I will always remember him in my memories and I would like to add that he was always there with me and now I even have Andy to take care of me."

" Andy?"

"My step-father."

"Any parting words?"

"Yes, I would like to tell everyone watching, including my fellow tributes "Happy Hunger Games and May the odds be ever in your favor, because they certainly are in mine." And I lift three fingers to my mouth but fell Percy and Dad trying to hold me back, and blow the crowd a kiss instead of what I was about to do and add "Oh, I want to bring my sister and brothers to show them the beauty of the Capitol during my victory tour."

"Don't, it can be the cause of your trouble in the games." They both say referring to the district gesture I was about to make.

Peruses Peeta points to my pin and I move my hair to give the audience a clear view of it and finger it once and then before Ceaser can ask anything the time ends and he lifts my hand in the air and says " Ladies and gentlemen I present to you Katniss Marine Everdeen, your tribute from district twelve."

I wave and bow and then leave to find Haymitch who says "Nice job sweetheart, except for the "may the odds" part, but still a nice touch. Nice dress too."

He then turns to Effie and says "Not yours." And on that happy note we turn to see Tertian's disaster of an interview. It is not that bad, he turns out to be the adoring elder brother but he ruins it by saying his sister died in the games and he does not stand a chance because he will not be able to fight, every time he lifts a weapon he sees her, his score of four can signify that and then he just looks gloomy before nearly walking off the stage. Ceaser thankfully, stops him and manages to coax conversation. Now the whole Panem knows that Tertian Northrop's sister and uncle died in the games, he wants the family tradition to continue and he wants me to win.

Haymitch says that my interview was more rebellious and his was the cherry on top of the cake. Now we will have to face the music in the arena but Haymitch makes light of it and makes us laugh saying that ours are the weirdest ways of tackling a death sentence. I know our Avox server but I had apologized, and asked her about her friend who died that day in the woods, one evening on the roof. If I win I will ask them to send her to twelve with me so that her brother can go to heaven. I never let anyone, about the fact, that we have met before; Dad had put his hand on my mouth before I could when I had seen her on that first day. Good thing too.

I spend a restless night on the roof, before Percy gives me a book to read and now I am standing in the tube looking at Cinna, fingering my pin with my flame painted nails and occasionally looking at Peeta Percy and Dad.

The arena, totally is mine, a lake on one side, woods on the other and a steep void on the third.

I think about everything innocent and nice in my life and remember Haymitch's advice, look at the ghosts I know as well as myself and get ready to run when I notice the bow just seconds before the gong sounds and sprint towards it as soon the gong goes.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter

I had promised Tertian that we would be strangers in that arena and thus I did not even look at him. I ran toward the bow, hoping against hope that no one attacked me before I had my hands on it. Haymitch was probably cursing, I had broken all the rules he ever told but to hell with him, this bow can totally make me come out unscratched.

I reached the bow and notched an arrow just in time to see a knife flying at me. I ducked and fired but two was quick and instead of her heart, the arrow got lodged in her arm.

I ran like I had never before and grabbed a backpack along with a sleeping bag on my way towards the woods.

I turned to see a bloodbath, and let me tell you, seeing them on television is one thing but this was horror. Dad and Percy had been there the whole time and when I stopped I realized why I had been so fast, Percy had lifted me just a centimeter above the ground.

"Kat you should not have done it." Dad said and I began to run again, until Percy and Dad both pushed me, so that I fell in dense undergrowth. I was shooting glares when I noticed the girl from five whom I called Foxface standing, right where I had been seconds ago.

"Thanks dad" I said looking at the sky, to fool one and all.

"Wise girl, I can feel water, the way you are taking is long, I sense a shorter way to a stream." And we turned to go to the right. I passed huge trees and lots of insects including some cliffs and the force field as dad called it, which would have blocked all sounds of the stream and within minutes, we came to a rocky terrain and then to a stream.

I sat down to check my bag and reveled a bottle of iodine, some rope, some crackers, beef strips, matches an empty water bottle and of all the things a shiny substance to put on my lips. In the sleeping bag there were night vision glasses as Peeta Percy called them. I climbed a tree and called it a night only to be woken up by the smell of smoke.

"Annabeth run" Percy yells as Dad helps me pull off the ropes and stuff my stuff in the backpack.

Percy looks concentrating and suddenly I can feel mist forming an invisible layer around me as he becomes a hurricane and pulls me into himself and propels me to run, keeping up with me using his ghostly strength as Dad yells directions to us. At other times I would have gloated over the fact that I am faster than Percy but now we are running for our lives or rather my life because he is dead.

"No Hades, not her." I can hear him muttering.

I follow all the forest animals whose tiny feet were the other thing that woke me up till I feel bile rise up and duck behind an enormous boulder to throw my guts up. Peeta Percy however maintains the hurricane near me.

"I can sense water in that direction." He says.

"Katniss I know what you are thinking do not try to encircle the fire, we all know its game maker made and also don't blame Cinna, I know you love him like a brother and he loves you like a sister, he would have never made the plan of lightning you up to hurt you." Dad yells along with directions.

I run until I see fireballs and everything disappears until they are gone, Peeta's shouting, Dad's warning everything. I then realize, they are not gone, dad and Percy that seaweed brain has managed to pull me away towards a pond. I feel frustrated because I was battling a battle in which my bow was no use at all.

I sit under water until I hear shouting and then I come up to see the Careers jeering at me, I hesitate and then take off running. I scale a tree, as high as I can go before I start teasing them. They hate it but I know the audience loves it, and they should too after all this game for death is nothing but a television show to them.

Two, infuriated throws a knife and I think that I am done for but Jackson and Dad turn me slightly so that my bag takes the knife. They keep trying to hurt me, until it is nightfall and the decide to make camp under the tree, only because Glimmer is too tired to move all the way back and Cato wants to keep an eye on me.

It is while they are asleep that Dad and Rue (she thought she was the only one) point out that tracker jacker nest to me, which causes the end of Glimmer and the girl from four. Percy and Dad using their supernatural powers created smoke which hid me from the sleepy mutts.

I escape to the stream and find Rue who I automatically ally with.

****  
Rue hugs me and then I make my way to the Career camp. Percy had watched them the whole morning and reports that have mined the ground. I go and hide where Rue told me to, while she lights the first fire, Percy is there taking care of her. Dad throws a stone a little away from here three is sitting and then helps me take the right stance and place to shoot that bag of apples. Two arrows and an apple falls out, tearing the bag, making others too fall out and the Careers supplies are done for as seems my right ear.

I lie that night with Rue thinking what happens after this, the boy from three was killed by Cato and now I see his ghost in the arena, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"I am sorry, I got you killed." He nearly jumps out of his skin and it takes some convincing from me, Peet and Dad to get the fact he is dead into him.

"I knew it was going to happen anyway, it was quick."

"Any idea why are you still here?"

"I guess, I wanted my mom's to be the last face I see before I die."

"Oh, well then you can just close your eyes picture your home and then you will be there." Percy says

"What then?"

"See her." I say before watching him disappear.

The games have come down to the final six. I killed Marvel, he had Rue trapped in a net, which Percy helped her out of, she does not understand how all the knots suddenly started becoming lose and how the wind kept making Marvel's spear's lose aim until I came and shot him, I did not want to do it but I saw red when I saw that he was going to hurt Rue, and my body acted on its own. I dread seeing his ghost. Some mediators believe we should treat ghost with respect but I prefer the punch when it comes to buffoons like Marvel.

I cannot let her go; she is like Prim, my little sister to me in here. There is a feast; we have enough, so we do not attend.

Tertian ,Thresh and Clove's faces line the sky and I have to hold Rue as she cries. I also say my silent goodbye to my district partner. The arena is down to the final four.

Peeta and dad kept an eye on Rue for me, making sure she does not go away. Now we are standing in front of the cornucopia as Foxface's face lines the sky, before she is gone forever. Thresh and Tertian's ghosts stand with us, they want to see Cato dead and Clove and the other ghosts I had to eradicate, which was tough in the arena, they were out for blood. However, I could not eradicate these two. Rue kept looking at me strange but I knew she trusted me. We waited, on Percy's advice atop the cornucopia, because he had been to the game center and had told us about the tribute mutts.

I shot Cato, in his head to avoid the body armor and tried to sleep through the mutts in the end while shielding Rue's ears and at last Percy told me his story and then Thresh told his, I laughed at times and Rue looked at me like I was a lunatic which I sure am, come on I can see the dead.

All four ghosts look at me and I look at Rue while she stares at me, fear in her eyes.

"Katniss, do it they have to have their victor." Tertian says in a small voice.

"No they don't." I say aloud and pull out the nightlock berries which we had picked up from near Foxface's dead body. Rue grabs my hand and so does Dad but Percy says "I am sure you would do the right thing" though he looks at me sadly but I get a feeling that he knows what I am about to do.

"Trust me." I say as I hand Rue half the berries.

"On three, one, two." Maybe I was wrong but still I say "Three" when suddenly Claudic's frantic voice comes over the arena "Stop Stop. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the victors of the 74th hunger games, Katniss Everdeen and Rue Grace."

The interviews were tense and Snow's snake eyes were filled with malice, just like Haymitch and Chaff said.

Thresh and Tertian disappeared when Rue and I won, their wishes fulfilled. Peeta Percy and dad however were there every step of the way, guiding me.

We stop in eleven to leave Rue and wave and smile but suddenly it is announced that Rue will be moving to twelve and after an hour her family and she come up. Eleven will receive their share of the victor's winning but Rue's family will have to live in twelve, which will receive only half of the winnings. Guess I doomed it for another year or maybe forever, since another victor is unlikely.

I smile and wave when we reach twelve but the only genuine smile is when I see my little duck sitting on top of Gale's shoulders. I see him frown at the sight of my and Percy's interlined hands. I had unconsciously gripped Peeta Peruses Jackson's hands, as if he was my anchor on this life's stormy sea. I see the ghost of Lavinia's brother and catch his smile when he sees her alive before he is heaven sent.

However, the most I can focus on is my new family engulfing me and Percy's rejection to stay at my new place. I don't know why but I need him, need he like oxygen and this scares me.

Am I in love? I ask as I wake up from yet another dream of us together. Am I?

No, I cannot be but then why? Oh, why oh why did I have to fall for the guy? No I will not, that is a vow, a vow made by Katniss Everdeen, the one who hunts and visits the Hob, me.

I wish I had not gone to the bakery or the Seam yesterday, they just showed me the tear filled eyes of the boys I had lost, now every time I close my eyes all I see is the tear sliding down Gale's cheek as he walks away from the show of his guts, which I might add, I have come to partially hate or the arena or Peeta's eyes which looked as if they had found and lost Annabeth again. I wanted to tell him, I so did but what if he is wrong and Annabeth comes along? I really cannot tackle any more heartbreaks, I just have had enough.

But I still look back, look back to tell him before he goes away forever.


End file.
